Those were the words of Brien McMahon's Connor O'Brien after he and teammate Miles McQuillen combined to shoot a 1-under par 68 Thursday in the annual Chappa Invitational two-man best ball tournament at Longshore.

That score was good enough to tie them for fifth overall with Fairfield Prep (Andrew Sciarretta and Matthew Cesare), New Canaan (Chris Tohur and Justin Clarke), Wilton (Kyle Jonas and Richie Williams) and Glastonbury (Nathaniel Dong and Albert Hansrisuk), but they believe they could have gone even lower, pointing to a number of missed putts.

"We left a lot of shots out there," said O'Brien, who will continue his golf career in the fall at Bucknell University. "We hit the ball well and on the greens we were probably just an inch or two off every time. We hit a lot of lips, cut a lot of edges."

Pomperaug's tandem of Michael VanDerLaan and Matt VanDoren, who played in the third group, posted an early 64 and that score stood up all day to give the Panthers' a two-stroke victory over Ridgefield (Jonathan Spicci and Will Senesack), Danbury (Max Theodorakis and Andy Stock) and Manchester (Blake Kelley and Branden Barrett).

Ridgefield played the back, which was the tougher nine, in 3-under to surge into a tie for second among the 64 teams taking part in the tournament.

Among the other area teams, Staples (Peter Richards and Dan Cozzi) shot a 72, Weston a 74 (Ryan Garvey and Alex Watanabe) and Norwalk a (Robert Essig and Billy Passero) 79.

The McMahon pair got to 3-under with a birdie on the par-5 10th hole, but bogeyed the 13th and 15th holes before finishing with three pars.

O'Brien and McQuillen played together in the Chappa for the second straight year and chopped one stroke off their score of 69 a year ago.

"I'm telling you, they could have been 8-under for the tournament," McMahon coach Bo Kane said. 'It wasn't missing putts, it was putts just not falling. Four times I saw the ball right around the rim of the cup.

"It's frustrating for them because they know they could have scored better. They played well, but they didn't score very well but I'm proud of them."

Jonas and Williams got off to a fast start with birdies on the first two holes and also made the turn at 2-under, then got to 3-under when Jonas holed a chip from just four yards off green for a birdie on the par-3 12th.

The Wilton pair turned in a steady, if not spectacular, round with their only bogies coming on the par-4 14th and 18th holes.

"We were 2-under on the front and then we kind of fell off a little bit at the end, but still definitely happy with it," Jonas said. "I think we had good strategy, one going aggressive, one staying conservative.

"It got to a point where we were both just making consistent pars on every hole but neither of us could really roll in a birdie. That was kind of the difference."

Norwalk, which posted splits of 39-40, made one birdie on No. 10, where Passero left an eagle putt two inches short.

The Bears also had an eagle opportunity earlier in the round when Passero reached the 293-yard, par-4 fourth hole off the tee, though they settled for par.

"It was fun," Essig said. "That's the whole point of this. We came out here, one of the last times Billy and I will play with each other before college. Couple mistakes on the back.

"The wind picked up heavily and that was a big factor for some mistakes out here, but all together we kept it pretty cool, I think. It could have been a lot worse."

The difference for the McMahon pair was their play on the par-3s. O'Brien and McQuillen recorded five birdies, but they also had four bogies, all on the par-3s.

"We had a lot of putts that just missed, but that was our problem in general," McQuillen added. "We had decent lines and just missed them by a tiny bit."

McQuillen nearly aced the second hole as his tee-shot landed inches from the cup, but the ball rolled 25 feet past the pin and they ended up three-putting for one of their bogies.

"I hit a pretty good ball and it landed right near the hole," McQuillen added. "Unfortunately, it was a tough pin, so the ball rolled past the hole pretty far. Just couldn't two-putt. The par 3's hurt as at the end."

It was still McMahon's best finish in the Chappa in Kane's 14 years as a coach.

Staples is always seen as a Chappa favorite because the tournament is played on its home course, but the Wreckers still never have won the tournament in Tom Owen's 26 years as coach, though they are consistently one of the top programs in the FCIAC.

Amity (Zach Prete an Jack Arnold) rounded out the top 10 and was the other team to match the unusual par of 69 at Longshore.